In the 23rd century the known galaxy is at war. The Terran Alliance and their coalition are fighting a desperate interstellar war with the evil Drengin Empire and their ruthless allies. Behind the scenes, the precursor civilization called the Dread Lords pulls the strings on both sides. As leader of a galactic civilization, it is up to you to ensure the triumph of your civilization. Fight wars, design star ships, research new technologies, negotiate treaties and build an empire that will stand the test of time in this award-winning turn-based strategy game.

The second and final expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations II is now available. Get Twilight of the Arnor on its own or pick up the entire saga together at a discounted price.

The GalCiv community has been working on an update for GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor. You can find the discussion here.

It’s really quite a thrill to be able to work with the community on a new update to the game. I originally came from the modding community as did the VP of Stardock Entertainment (Kael – aka Fall From Heaven). So being able to integrate the ideas, fixes, and improvements into the official game made by the fans is quite a joy.

Some of the changes necessary are requiring some code changes. Luckily, the IT team got me set up with a Windows XP VM so that I can load up Visual Studio 2003 to make those changes.

We’ve officially launched the beta! Bells are ringing, birds are singing, and it’s a beautiful day to dig up the archives of a forgotten race’s reality TV shows and use them to placate a restive populace that for some reason doesn’t see the value in mandatory six-month stints working the factories of the nearest forgeworld.

To all of our Founders, thank you so much for your early support. Elite Founders, your feedback and bug reporting has been invaluable in getting Galactic Civilizations III ready for a wider audience. Fire up your Steam client, and it should patch your install to the beta automatically.

To anyone waiting for Galactic Civilizations III to be regular price before diving in, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Sadly, the game is $44.99 during the beta rather than its regular $49.99 price. We beg your forgiveness.

Follow the development of Galactic Civilizations III throughout the beta, ask the team your questions live, and get sneak peeks of upcoming builds every Friday on the official Stardock Twitch channel.

The Galactic Civilizations III beta includes:

Race-specific tech trees – Each race discovers the secrets of creation in its own way. Look out for Drengin invasions a whole age before anyone else can pull one off.

Ideology rework – Get an entire invasion fleet for free, take control of all planets inside your sphere of influence, and more!

Huge hulls – For when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every last filthy alien in the quadrant.

New colonization events – Thirty more events will challenge your ideology whenever you bring the light of civilization to a new world.

Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate is now available on GOG.com! Pick this up today while it's on sale for just $7.99 for a limited time. This is a classic and is a welcome addition to any gamers catalog.

While the Drengin Empire may hate you, your pets and your hair cut, we at Stardock love you and thank you for your continuing support with Galactic Civilizations. We look forward to continuing this saga someday in the future!

Stardock announced today that the award-winning 4X turn-based strategy title Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition has made its way to Steam. Stardock announced that after years of exclusivity to the Impulse digital distribution platform (now owned by GameStop) its titles would be making their way to a broader PC gaming audience. Fans can now purchase Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition (priced at $19.95) for 25 percent off through December 9 at http://store.steampowered.com/app/202200/. Nominated for several “Strategy Game of the Year” awards in 2007, Galactic Civilizations II is the most epic turn-based space strategy game ever.

In Galactic Civilizations, it is the 23rd century and the known galaxy is at war. The Terran Alliance and their coalition are fighting a desperate interstellar war with the evil Drengin Empire and their ruthless allies. Behind the scenes, the precursor civilization called the Dread Lords pulls the strings on both sides. As leader of a galactic civilization, it is up to you to ensure the triumph of your civilization. Fight wars, design star ships, research new technologies, negotiate treaties and build an empire that will stand the test of time in this epic and timeless strategy game.

The first expansion title, Dark Avatar, greatly expands the gameplay of Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. Dark Avatar introduces asteroid belts that can be mined for resources, unique planets that require special technologies to colonize, spies to conduct sabotage and destabilization (or used to protect your worlds from the same), new types of diplomatic treaties, an enhanced artificial intelligence engine, and much more.

The second expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, takes players into the year 2227 where the fire of war is consuming the galaxy thanks to the manipulations of the evil Dread Lords. But the remaining factions, led by the humans, have a plan to rid the galaxy of the Dread Lords once and for all. It’s up to you to conquer the galaxy and determine the fate of those around you.